Smoke-onTrent

People are still lighting up in Stoke-on-Trent's pubs and will be for another week, after a bureaucratic mistake over the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces.

On-the-spot fines cannot yet be issued to smokers flouting the 1 July ban because of "late changes in technical bits of legislation", the council said.

Landlord Dax Robateau has put cheeky "Welcome to Smoke-on-Trent" posters in The Smithfield pub in Hanley

The authority said it would be able to issue fines from 16 July.

It said it was still able to take action against pubs or clubs where people were smoking and would be able to take retrospective action against any smokers caught flouting the ban.

A spokesman said: "People are obliged to comply with a speeding restriction, regardless if there's a police speed gun nearby. The whole government advice and council advice is to advise and educate people in the early days. (But) they can still be reported and action can still be taken against them."